December 5, 2007

BUMPED: Good news: "Washington County District Attorney Todd Martens says he believes the comment left by James Buss was disgusting but is protected under the First Amendment."

ORIGINAL POST:

Here's something more on the Wisconsin teacher — James Buss — who was arrested for a blog comment that some read as recommending that teachers be shot. We discussed this a few days ago here.

In the new story, we see the ACLU and UW polisci professor Donald Downs urging that no charges be filed:

Washington County District Attorney Todd Martens is considering whether to charge Buss with disorderly conduct and unlawful use of computerized communication systems.

"If you look at all the factors in this case, it's pretty clear it would be a mistake to charge," said Larry Dupuis, legal director of The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin. "At worst, it was somebody expressing admiration for somebody who did something reprehensible. But the more reasonable explanation is this is somebody who is trying to mock the conservative view of teacher salaries."

Police Capt. Toby Netko defended the arrest. He said the teacher who complained was disturbed by the reference to "one shot at a time" and other educators agreed it was a threat.

"What happens when you say bomb in an airport? That's free speech, isn't it?" he said. "And people are taken into custody for that all the time."

Donald Downs, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor and expert in free speech, said that "all sorts of unsavory, controversial speech" are protected by the First Amendment.

"It has to be intended to incite violence" to be illegal, Downs said. "If it's tongue-in-cheek, there's virtually no way they can claim that."

Downs added, however, that the school district might have legal grounds to discipline Buss. The teacher has been placed on paid administrative leave while his school district considers what action to take.

Buss tried for sarcasm, but not everyone gets a joke. Oddly enough, he himself was in the category of persons who are threatened, if it's a threat. Why wasn't he more worried about inspiring a troubled student to attack teachers? Probably, like many writers, he assumed people would understand his writing. But not even the other teachers understood it. That's all quite unfortunate.

Now, let me be clear about one thing — sledgehammer clear — so that no one can misread this: The man should not be charged with a crime.

And let no one think I will be coming 'round with a real sledgehammer.

UPDATE: As indicated above, the decision was made not to prosecute. Here, Buss explains himself:

Buss told police he "just wanted to see if the hate towards teachers from other posters was so strong that other posters would endorse my facetious post," the report says....

Buss, who in a statement described himself as politically "moderate," told police he misspelled words and used incorrect grammar and punctuation to enhance his characterization of "Observer" as "a right-wing zealot."

Buss told police that he did not intend his post, which he called "mischievous," as a threat, but he understood how someone could perceive it as "advocating a Columbine-like attack on schools." Buss said he posted comments on the Web site under two other names, "Jeff" and "Ditto."

57 comments:

For some strange reason, schools are highly sensitive to people making threats for another Columbine.

This Buss guy may have intended it as sarcastic, as much as several students since Columbine who expelled, arrested and processed through the adult and juvenile justice system did. Certainly, with his reference to those shooters and killing teachers with one shot at a time, people perceived his remarks as a threat and reported him.

There is precedence for prosecution, Professor Althouse, based on students issuing vague threats or "just shooting my mouth off, I wasn't serious, honest!!" but still finding themselves criminally prosecuted or under court administrative orders.

Whats good in the eyes of the law, zero tolerance for students that make threats affecting the safe environment of students or are intended to terrorize - ought to be just as valid for adult teacher.

It's the symbolic order, and sort of a roust, to show the police are in charge and take themselves seriously even when they're in fact doing comedy. Maybe somebody will slap them down, or perhaps it will just be zero tolerance pie tossing, as is already done for school authorities.

Professor, you can come to my house with a sledgehammer to break through all the icy snow.

I think zero tolerance laws should be called zero thinking laws. They tie the hands of judges who want to be sensible, and the laws rank right up there with the statement It's against policy to do that as bugbears of modern life.

The first time you ignore one of these off the wall threats, and the guy starts shooting. All of a sudden the authorities weren't doing there job. Sounds like it's cover your a-- time. And I don't blame them in this day and age.

Why is this so important for Larry Dupuis, legal director of The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin. "... But the more reasonable explanation is this is somebody who is trying to mock the conservative view of teacher salaries." [emphasis added].

But he wasn't in a classroom. And if we're going to start looking at teachers lives outside the classroom for indications of poor judgment then I suspect schools will become extremely understaffed.

This is a time in which I think the conversation itself is the right response. It's not a crime, but it's not really good thinking either. He shouldn't be penalized by the state, but he is getting penalized by the public. The internet has put him in stocks and now folks are throwing their rotten vegetables at him. Public humiliation is a nice middle ground between acceptance and arrest.

Likely he won't post like that again and likely others who hear of this might begin to think of web comments as being part of, rather than outside of, normal human interaction.

Owens calls himself a tech guy, Jed calls himself a lawyer, they turned over the IP address within moments of reading the request so early in on a Saturday morning they had to wake the cop up to do so.

Jed the lawyer calls himself a libertarian.

They couldn't ask for a warrant?They couldn't ask for a 3-5 day delay? They couldn't wait until Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday?They couldn't first send an email to the EFF?

These are our conservative and libertarian defenders of free speech? And our defenders against the abuse of power from the state?

I'd say both the tech guy and the lawyer guy fail in their professions and fail as citizens.

I have a blog friend who is a teacher. He got into hot water with his administration because two students had found his blog, and made a stink about it. It featured some ads that were, lets just say, gay and racey. My friend also occasionally wrote stuff concerning gay issues. Needless to say, he was terminated. He was going to fight, but decided it would take too much time and money, plus victory in the court system was very uncertain (not that it ever is, but you know what I mean). Sad thing is, he was featured in the Washington Post article a few months prior exclaiming what a fine job he was doing. But it's funny how things turn out. He has a great new job, but has also learned his lesson and doesn't blog anymore, though he does comment on those of his blog-pals.

Me? I have no visitors, thus I have no ads to offend. And I have alway been guarded on the things I write. It's part of my nature. I mean - Really! If I didn't, I would look like a bleeding idiot, some of the things I think of!!!!

In Wisconsin the voters seem to want an all powerful government. It's not surprising that this sort of thing can happen in that climate.

Of course the teacher is protected by the first amendment.

Something to note is that one can be fired from a job for actions that are not crimes, or for actions that might be crimes but where charges aren't filed, or guilt established beyond a reasonable doubt.

Bill Clinton and his followers never understood this simple reality.

I'm sure this teacher voted for Clinton. Sadly for the teacher, he's not a Clinton so therefore is held to higher standards than mere Presidents.

You have to be a pretty good writer to get across that something you posted on a website is meant as a joke, or you're being sarcastic. Unless someone knows you personally they won't understand what you're writing is supposed to be funnyish.

I fully agree that the man should not be charged with a crime now. I think the more interesting question is whether the posting should ever have been investigated as a possible crime in the first place. It is easy to conclude now that there was no intent to incite violence and that the writer was not a criminal but a fool. I do not, however, fault either the public officials or the private citizens who, before the author's identity and credentials were known, perceived a possible threat (of low probability but high urgency) and acted to determine quickly whether it was real. With particular reference to the private citizens, it seems to me that "good citizenship" demands neither automatic cooperation with the police nor automatic testing of their authority to compel each act of cooperation, but the exercise of judgment. Contra M. Cuse, I see no failure of citizenship here.

"Mr. Buss" was the only way I knew this man being blogged about, as he was my physical science and chemistry teacher in high school. Having spent two years in his classroom, I can say that he is a sarcastic man indeed.

Looking back, I can now see that being a teacher was his life. He even went so far as to bring the fish he caught over the weekend into the classroom for a "snack". He was the type of teacher that would stay after school and work with students until he felt they understood the topic at hand. You wanted him to pick on you in class because that meant you were just like everyone else.

I picture Mr. Buss sitting at his desk at home, wanting to use his words to make a strong point and to get some attention. And he chose the wrong words. But take away his career? Too much, I think. Especially knowing the kind of teacher he was, and probably still is. It would be a big loss.

"Why wasn't he more worried about inspiring a troubled student to attack teachers? "

Because if a troubled shooter would be inspired by a blog post to attack teachers, he would also be inspired by his tv, radio, next door neighbors dog, his AC/DC cd, the voices in his head or any other unlimited possibilities.

Arrested? No. Talking to with a subtle dose of job security thrown in for good measure, yes. Unfortunatley, the sensitivity police are getting too powerful in their quest to erase all forms of humor- even poor subtle humor.

No, not really. You'd be surprised how many of the kids listen to the "old" stuff. I see tons of AC/DC / Zeppelin / Aerosmith / Rush shirts in the halls of the schools I sub at. A few years ago, I got to sing "Highway To Hell" when my band played at a young couples Jewish wedding. And Yes - that IS the highlight of my music career!

I think you better get a new captain of police up there. He arrests people because other people are disturbed by what is written. Gee, the Wisconsin police are making criminals out of posters. I guess posting on the internet is the equivalent of saying bomb in an airport.

Is this Captain a tool or what? I was a cop for twenty nine years. If I pulled a stunt like this I not only would be sued, but fired and probably indicted by the Feds.

Chicago was nice although it snowed and it was cold and O'Hare Airport sucks.

I had to go to Mike Ditka's Steakhouse with the Senior Management of my company. Yes, I was a fish out of water. Mike Ditka was there and I got my picture taken of him with the rest of the management of my company. I felt so butch and so wrong. I also went to a fabulous restaurant with a friend of mine from Wisconsin who lives in Chicago. The restaurant is called Carnival and it was divine.

How is everyone? What liberal has got us worked up tonight? I just called the front desk queen and told the bitch to bring the wet bar key to my room ASAP. I am ready to rumble.

Chicago was very pretty while the snow was coming down. I told my friend who lives there I just love his little city- in a patronizing way. We both laughed because we know I am still a small town goof living the big city dream.

I didn't want to do any of the room service workers on this trip which is always a bummer.

Though it's easy to miss, notice that the person posting on this thread is using the name "Ann Althose". Nice tactic, designed to sabotage Althouse's name and smear her some more. It would be creepy if it weren't so pathetic.

Althouse is interesting for the whole train wreck that she is, and how incredibly easy she is to troll. She is a reactionary blogger, what do you expect. She didn't hurt anyone's feelings, she's an easy target. It's pathetic, yes, but so is a theoretically smart and educated woman in her fifties who is obsessed with Bill Clinton's penis and things that have been near it. Her fairly typical Hillary-phobia wouldn't be notable except for her vehement and repeated denials of it, and her need to make sure everyone knows who she will vote for.

So tell me, Palladian, do you form sort of an anti-muse to Althouse's genius, wherein everything for Althouse is literally about Althouse, you then attempt to do some kind of Freudian reversal on people who call her out on her batshit insanity?

Ah, Jeebus. Now I'm just another voice of reason on this blog, like the others Althouse has accused of sockpuppetry, defemation, and stalking in her perpetual victim-complex. I feel like I've lost my shtick after only 24 hours. But Jesus Christ tits in a mason jar, there's nothing quite like in-your-face willful ignorance. I mean, I know Althouse is doing it because it serves her little psychotic purposes, but Christ, can't you regular commenters do a little more than just gratuitous blowjobs? I don't know who's more pathetic, the second-tier losers like Palladian or the Train Wreck Queen herself.

One type of troll we see all the time at LGF is known as a “moby,” after the pop star Moby—who publicly advocated posting “false flag” comments at right wing web sites, posing as extremist nut jobs, in order to discredit those sites.

Tinian said... The clown is what Little Green Footballs has termed a "Moby":

One type of troll we see all the time at LGF is known as a “moby,” after the pop star Moby—who publicly advocated posting “false flag” comments at right wing web sites, posing as extremist nut jobs, in order to discredit those sites.

I'd be kind of amazed if somebody could explain how to tell the difference between real and fake extremist nutjobs at LGF. I mean, really...